Osteopathy Is All About Balancing The Body
Osteopathy can be defined as the interrelationship between structure and function of the body, recognizing the body’s ability to heal itself.
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Osteopathy Explained:
The Osteopathic practice holds that the body has an innate or natural ability to balance and heal itself. The keystone to balance in the body is the ability of the body to properly circulate it’s fluids and liquids. These fluids include but are not limited to blood, lymph, synovial fluid, digestive juices, cerebrospinal fluid, and axoplasm.
These fluids are involved in all aspects of life, and carry through them everything the body needs to sustain us.
Osteopathy focuses on eliminating or relieving any blockages to these fluids passing smoothly through the body. Impediments to the body may take the form of structural or non-structural blockages. Structural or physical impediments include generalized twists, curves or pulls within the body as well as specific bones, organs or tissues that are misaligned. These faultsmay either affect the control of a system that controls fluid circulation, or affect the circulation of liquids along with the life sustaining and regulatory products that they carry.
Non-structural impediments may include emotional patterns that are responsible for maintaining the body in a certain adaptation of defence, such as a predisposition to holding the breath. These adaptations are quite often responses to stressful incidents of the past, present, or are of a repetitive nature, such as raising the shoulders in times of stress or cold temperatures.
Over time, the body may lose its ability to efficiently self-regulate and to heal itself easily. This loss may be due to the aging process or due to any number of conditions that put the body and the mind under stress.
In most cases the patient has had some combination of experiences. The result of these experiences may manifest in the body. However more frequently, the symptoms are experienced far from the site of the original site of occurrence. This is why the Osteopathic Manual Practitioner will focus on the whole body. Although treatment may be directed toward several specific areas, the effect of that treatment is often felt in areas of the body where the attention may not be given.
By using a meticulous methodology, an Osteopath is able to determine the origin and effects of aging, trauma and other experiences, and create and administer an appropriate treatment plan.
The Osteopathic Treatment Process:
- Understanding the patients needs and concerns through an initial consultation
- performing a complete osteopathic assessment
- assessing the position, mobility and quality of certain tissues, fluids, and rhythms of the body.
Once the nature of the patient’s condition is determined, treatment is directed towards helping the body regain its individual and optimal ability to circulate these fluids unimpeded and in sufficient quantity. This restoration of circulation leads to the body’s natural ability to regulate and heal itself.